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So I just made it 14 minutes into an epic 23 minute fly tying video and it got me thinking.

1: Who the F&@K spends 23 minutes tying a fly? I admit to fumbling through a bug or two in the pre K stages of this hobby, but I'm pretty sure this dude had been spinning thread a while. A few of my early creations may have ended up taking a week to tie but that was never the recipe. Tying has always been about filling orders and boxes quickly, probably thanks to the second tying book I read, AK's Production Fly Tying. Mixing Patience, speed and attention to detail can get messy. I was always bugged by 5 minute epoxy (thank you UV clear coat) and processing turkey feathers with fleximent was a drag (thank you thin skin) guess I might be a bit antsy. But purposely spending 1/2 hour on a fly that I could loose in 30 seconds just makes my right butt cheek hurt.

2: How much is my time worth? If spending 23 minutes to apply 47 materials to the shank makes the fish buy the bug 84% more, then I guess it's worth my time. One of the many teachers I had in the art, yelled at me for leaving to much tag when I started flies.
"Wasting a whole midge there son"
Think of all the money you would save on fly boxes; it would take a year of no fishing to fill a small one. Now all your doing is tying and starting to mess with time on the river and that can get costly.

3: Does a super realistic fly work that much better? Are you stocked up on your Tapered Variegated Antennae and your mono eyes with painted on pupils? I stopped tying legs on most of my small nymphs to save time long ago, maybe that's my lazy side but if ya fluff up the right dubbing in the thorax you give an illusion of legs anyways. I've had delicate tails fall off Beatis patterns and still wack fish after fish and the best midge larve patterns are still just thread. Prove to me I have to start investing in Real Bug Parts, wing burners and knotted legs and I will comply but for now simple and easy means more options in more boxes.

4: Who watches a fly tying video or for that matter a fly fishing video over 4 minutes long? Once my ADD kicks in, I'm looking for the pause button quicker than my dad looks for the mute button on commercials.

Most guide flies morph into something real simple over time. I see them lost quick so I want to tie them quicker and of course, cheap. This is a good 2 material fly if you count the thread, doesn't get much easier. Little love for the Ostrich.

The Big Bird

Hook: #22 Tiemco 2487

8/0 Black thread underbody

Rib: Stripped Gray Ostrich herl

Collar: Gray Ostrich herl tied in soft hackle style.

Tan Ostrich over rust 8/0, Olive over Brown works good too

When you prep the Ostrich, just strip about 1" of the barbs from the butt of the quill. When you tie it in, pull the stripped end to position the barbs you have not stripped at about the collar tie in point and wind back towards the bend. This eliminates having to tie in another piece of herl and reduces bulk. It doesn't always work out, sometimes you have to tie in 2. Before winding the quill forward, coat the under body with head cement to insure it lasts longer than one Brown Trout. Hen, Starling and Grouse will always be go to materials for soft hackling, but it can be a pain finding small enough feathers to pull off the tiny stuff. Ostrich herl is a great material to use when soft hackling tiny flies #22-#26 or god forbid.....smaller.

Fly Fishing is hard, so is Macro Photography. I have been struggling to take close up shots of bugs, natural or not for the better part of 10 years, with poor results. With the addition of the new camera (Nikon D3100) the research department immediately began the hunt for a Macro lens to"get smaller". Along the way and through the information tunnel that is the Web we found that for under $10 you can buy a ring to reverse your lens and basically pull off the same shot. Saved $300 buy not buying a macro lens and only regretted the fact it took 30 days to get here until this afternoon, now we are in business. With a few toothpicks to jam the aperture wide open, a tripod, 2 lights, one Peak Vise, 3 days of patience, a couple of Google Chrome searches and here you go.

The Crip Keeper. Works even better with a bead.

It's awkward turning your lens around. The brain of the camera has no connection to the lens any more and the focal length becomes very small, not to mention a gremlin could crawl in the exposed guts end.. By manually operating the aperture lever at the end of the lens the shots began to come. There is still a ton of blurriness, probably due to the fact that the shutter is open for 10 minutes while both my carpenter hands are on the camera. Guess the next purchase is a cable release so the camera doesn't move.

PMD Moltin MayFly

So's I guess the 3 of you who read this blog can thank my new Reversing Ring from Australia for all the dirty little secrets I'm about to take pictures of. They work and I've got a couple of filthy one's. I have plenty of my clients time to experiment with; thousands of hours of research and development go into this seriousness don't cha know.

I wonder if my brothers back home on the Marcellus Shale deposit had the amount of info we now have, how many of them would have sold their soul? I remember lots of my friends selling off mineral rights on their farms or hunting land assuming no one would ever knock on the door.
I was lucky enough to pass through the gate of a piece of property that is part of who I am recently. It's a place that I wish was closer for Sam to enjoy, it is without a doubt a piece of my soul. I can't imagine having to dodge oil pads on my way to the tree stand.